Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s office says he doesn’t have enough details of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pledged $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan to know if enough spill prevention measures will be in place, or that the state would be protected in the event of a spill.

“The governor has been very clear that safe transport of crude oil across the Salish Sea requires robust oil spill planning and response including the necessary equipment to locate, contain and recover sinking/submerged oil,” said Tara Lee, a communications officer for Inslee. “We do not have enough detail yet that this plan will address our concerns.”

The planned pipeline also faces opposition from Seattle politicians who, like their counterparts in Vancouver, are opposed to any expansion of the oil industry, and who openly support the protesters at Standing Rock who are against the Dakota Access Pipeline. It has also generated promises of court fights from First Nations on both sides of the border.

“It is fair to say that Seattle and regional leaders are very concerned about proposals related to fossil-fuel infrastructure across the Northwest and have consistently pushed for stronger safety measures through the Safe Energy Leadership Alliance,” said Lisa Herbold, a Seattle council member. “SELA has more than 165 elected leaders from western states and British Columbia and I would expect us to take a careful look at this issue because the pipeline expansion would increase sevenfold the number of oil tankers in the Salish Sea, raising many of the same crucial safety issues as oil trains and terminals.”

Fred Felleman, a Seattle Port commissioner and a consultant for Friends of the Earth Society, which was an intervenor in the National Energy Board hearings, predicted the project will attract a variation of the Standing Rock protests.

“I think quite frankly this is a Canadian oil industry project and to think that they can buy the social licence of Canadians by putting U.S. waters at greater risk is wholly irresponsible and will be vehemently fought,” he said.

Any tanker export of Canadian oil from Kinder Morgan’s Westridge terminal in Burnaby necessarily threads through island-strewn U.S. and Canadian waters in the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, now collectively known as the Salish Sea. But while there are existing bilateral marine pollution contingency plans between Canada and the U.S., they do not go far enough to cover the new Trans Mountain plans.

In September, before Trudeau announced his oceans protection plan and his approval of the Kinder Morgan project, Washington’s Department of Ecology sent a letter to Ottawa raising concerns over the NEB’s approval of the pipeline and its view that the imposition of 157 conditions was inadequate.

“Ecology remains concerned that the NEB-proposed conditions for oil-spill prevention, preparedness and response will not adequately protect our shared waters,” said Dale Jensen, the department’s program manager of spill prevention, preparedness and response.

Lee said this week that despite Trudeau’s ocean protection plan announcement, Inslee’s concerns have not abated. ” The same concerns noted in our statement and previous comments during the process still stand,” she said in a statement.

Scott Ferguson, manager of spills prevention for Washington, said much of the worry relates not to how Canada will respond in the event of a spill, but how Kinder Morgan will.

“I don’t want you to think that Washington Ecology is pointing the finger at Canada. We’re not. We are looking at Kinder Morgan to be the key impetus to do a lot of work to help reduce the risk of a pollution incident, and then to reduce the impact if there is an issue in the future,” he said. “We’re neither opposed or support the project. We just want to make sure that all the safety steps are taken to reduce risk and the potential increase in tanker traffic.”

Kinder Morgan has met with Washington state officials for several years and has worked to resolve their worries, said Ali Hounsell, a Trans Mountain spokeswoman. Although the company now has approval to build the pipeline, that consultation will continue, she said.

“We understand that the people in Washington state and British Columbia and all people place a high value on our coastal waters,” Hounsell said. “We believe that we can operate this project from our perspective, and working with the various levels of agencies in Canada and the United States to ensure the continued safety of our coast.”

Trans Mountain has put in place or encouraged other stakeholders, such as the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, an industry-funded group, to put in place spill prevention and response assets. WCMRC has said it would install six new response stations on the Salish Sea and Barkely Sound on Vancouver Island’s west coast.

Trans Mountain has said it would be fully responsible for any oil spill that occurs in its pipeline and in the delivery to a tanker, but that any spill by a vessel would be the responsibility of the carrier and its insurance company. However, Hounsell said Trans Mountain has agreed to extend the mandatory tethered tug escort through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which now ends near Victoria, to farther out to sea.